Objectives and Overview of Services Addressing the first three overall objectives of MPRC over the coming five years, the Development Core (DC) has three primary objectives: 1) to develop junior faculty at the University of Maryland to become independent, externally-funded scholars in population science research; 2) to expand cross-cutting population science research at the University of Maryland, through aiding our university faculty to move their research agenda towards the population sciences, and to foster interdisciplinary collaborative opportunities; and 3) to increase the knowledge and awareness of federal statistical programs and access to data, and collaborations with federal colleagues. Additionally, the DC works closely with the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, promoting both inclusive approaches to population research and minority population researchers.